I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for transmitting pilot in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems.
A wireless communication system may include many base stations that can support communication for many terminals on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. The terminals may be located anywhere within the system, and each terminal may be within the coverage of zero, one, or multiple base stations at any given moment. A terminal may transmit a pilot on the reverse link to allow the base stations to detect the terminal. The pilot may also be used to estimate the channel conditions for the terminal, to assign the terminal to an appropriate base station that can efficiently serve the terminal, and/or for other purposes. The pilot transmitted by the terminal, although useful, represents overhead.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to efficiently transmit pilot on the reverse link.